Photo via Twitter / Brewers
The Brewers certainly had a weekend to forget in New York, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of the season will follow the same track.
Brewers pitchers gave up 36 runs across three games against the Yankees, allowed 15 home runs and needed a position player to pitch to record the final outs twice while getting swept at Yankee Stadium in a historic meltdown to open their campaign. The Brewers used 12 pitchers over the weekend and first baseman Jake Bauers, who pitched on Saturday and Sunday, was one of only three that did not allow a run.
On Sunday Aaron Judge hit his fourth homer of the series. In 2002 Shawn Green of the Mets became the only player to hit four home runs in a game against the Brewers.
Not every disastrous game, however, is a symptom of a disastrous season to come. Even the 2024 Brewers, for example, had back-to-back days in April where they lost to the Yankees by 10 or more runs. Here are some more of the worst games in some of the Brewers’ best seasons:
August 2, 2018: Dodgers 21, Brewers 5
With Clayton Kershaw on the mound for the Dodgers, Brewers starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin likely knew he couldn’t afford to give up much and his offense got him a run in the top of the first inning. The lead lasted all of three pitches, however, as Joc Pederson led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run and the Dodgers never looked back, setting a franchise and a Dodger Stadium record by scoring 21 runs. The game included a five-run third and a nine-run seventh to pile on.
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The loss came on a day where the Brewers could have moved into a first-place tie in the NL Central with a win. Instead, they continued to look up at the Cubs for nearly two full months before winning a tiebreaker game to clinch the division.
May 11, 1982: Royals 17, Brewers 3
The Brewers were 16-10 but had already endured one five-game losing streak on the season when they went on the road to Kansas City and hit another low point. They lost the series opener 3-2 on a walk-off home run and that bad momentum followed them into the next day, when they allowed four runs in the bottom of the first and three more in the second, eventually trailing 12-0 before they scored their first run. Royals center fielder Amos Otis, who only had nine home runs the prior year, hit the walk-off the night before and homered again in this game.
That trip to Kansas City was the start of a 6-14 stretch for the ‘82 Crew that saw them fall back under .500 and all the way to sixth place in the American League East. They went 73-43 the rest of the way, however, and eventually reached the World Series.
August 5, 1979: Red Sox 19, Brewers 5
On a Sunday afternoon at County Stadium the Brewers threw the first pitch of the second game of a doubleheader at 4:16 p.m. Central time and the game’s outcome was likely determined before the end of the hour. The Red Sox put together four singles to score three times in the first inning, then plated a single run in the second and four more in the third to take an 8-0 lead. They scored in eight of the nine innings that day and had six multi-run innings, scoring multiple runs off of all six Brewers pitchers.
That day’s doubleheader sweep continued a 3-9 stretch for the Brewers which cost them five games in the AL East standings and all but closed the door on the hopes for their first trip to the postseason. That team still set a franchise record with 95 wins, however, and as we noted in 2022 they would have made the playoffs under the current postseason format.
April 3, 2011: Reds 12, Brewers 3
On a Sunday afternoon series finale in Cincinnati the Brewers were still looking for their first win of the season and they’d be forced to keep looking. They took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first but gave up two runs in the second, four in the fourth and four more in the sixth as the Reds combined for four home runs in a blowout victory.
This wasn’t the single ugliest loss of the 2011 season, but it bears remembering for its narrative importance: That team went on to lose each of its first four games before going 96-62 the rest of the way and winning the franchise’s first division title in 29 years. Sometimes a bad Opening Weekend is just a bad weekend.
